Issue Description

Animal Man visits John Starr in hopes that he can help him find the key to time travel, so that Buddy can prevent the murders of his wife and children. Animal Man teams up with Booster Gold to go after the Time Masters!

Buddy feels he needs a time machine to go back and save his family. First he visits the Time Commander, but his hourglass is broken and he's having a bit of a breakdown. Next, he and Booster Gold go to ask the Rip Hunter and the Time Masters for help. At first Hunter refuses, but Buddy makes up a story about two time traveling villains teaming up against the Justice League. Hunter buys his story, and gives Buddy a damaged time machine that has a dent in it. As Buddy and Booster leave, Booster asks him how he got Hunter to let him borrow one of his machines. When Buddy remarks that he lied, Booster asks him what kind of hero is.

At Arkham Asylum, something is beginning to happen to Psycho Pirate. He looks at the reader and tells us that he sees us watching him and calls us perverts. He grabs his head and complains about the pain. Suddenly, an array of colors erupts from his head and leave a comic book on the floor. Psycho Pirate goes to pick it up, and it's revealed to be the classic "Flash of Two Worlds" story.

Meanwhile, Buddy has returned home and is in his kitchen preparing to activate the time machine. He does so, and we see several panels of him traveling through time. He ends up across the street from his house, and sees himself and Ellen after Mirror Master's attack. He tries to get their attention, but ends up disappearing and going further back in time. He winds up in a tree and sees his son Cliff walking below him. He calls Cliff's name, but he doesn't hear. Buddy disappears again. This happens a few more times. His daughter Maxine manages to see him, and he talks to her for a second; long enough for Ellen to look out the window and see her daughter talking to a strange man. Buddy goes further back in time. Buddy is beginning to despair... he keeps going further back in time and meets himself first as a teenager and then as a child. Finally, Buddy stops time traveling. He has landed back in the sixties, in a park. He sits down on a bench and holds his head in his hands. An immaculately dressed man with worn down shoes walks up and offers to help him. Buddy is surprised that someone can see him and asks the man who he is. The well dressed man introduces himself simply as "a Stranger".

Epilogue: Two shadowy figures approach Dr. Highwater from behind. They tell him that the story is almost at end. Highwater turns around and sees the two yellow aliens who gave Animal Man his powers. Meanwhile, more and more multiverse related items keep coming out of the Psycho Pirate. He screams out an ominous, "They're coming!".

Animal Man

Publisher

Vertigo

Volume Description

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Writer Grant Morrison was one of the" British Invasion" creators from the UK who were brought in to DC to revamp older and obscure properties after the success of Alan Moore 's Swamp Thing . Thus Morrison pitched the idea of Animal Man, originally as a four issue mini-series. Strong sales however, meant DC asked Morrison to continue his series an ongoing, which he did for 26 issues. During his run, Morison incorporated themes such as animal rights and vegetarianism as well as fourth-wall breaking story lines which ended in Morrison inserting himself into the comic and directly speaking to Animal Man and revealing his status as a fictional character. Morrison's series re-invented Buddy Baker as a suburban family man and "average Joe" character, he also introduced a new Mirror Master (McCulloch).

After Morrison's run ended, Peter Milligan took over briefly and then Tom Veitch, who focused on Baker's stuntman career. Writer Jamie Delano then came on board as writer, transforming the title into a horror book and lining Animal Man much closer to the Swamp Thing style character, by re-inventing him again as an avatar of "The red" a force of animal life similar to Moore's "The Green" in his Swamp Thing stories, something which Morrison was opposed to but became part of Baker's status quo, especially in Jeff Lemire's New 52 Animal Man series. it was during this time (issue #57) the book was placed under DC's new Vertigo imprint along side other mature readers titles at DC where it remained for the rest of its run. Between issues #66 and #67, Delano also wrote the Animal Man Annual #1, focusing on Buddy's daughter Maxine, the annual was the third part of Vertigo's crossover The Children's Crusade.

The series had never been fully collected though #1-26 (Morrison's run) have been collected in three trades so far, the first nine issues were collected soon after they had been printed back before Vertigo came around in Animal Man- through the art of reprinting the volume has been updated to Vertigo. Over a decade later, a second volume was released, Animal Man: Origin of the Species which collected the next eight issues as well as Animal Man's origin issue from the Secret Origins series. And finally, a year later the third volume was released, Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina which collected nine more issues though left the majority of the series (including all the issues that were printed after the Vertigo imprint got stamped onto the series) uncollected.

Peter Milligan's run on the book would eventually fill a fourth trade in 2013, possibly due to the revived interest in Animal Man after the New 52.

The Shifting Cast of Writers on the Title

Grant Morrison: # 1- 26Peter Milligan: # 27- 32Tom Veitch: # 33- 50Jamie Delano: # 51- 79Jerry Prosser: # 80- 89AnnualAnimal Man Annual #1 - MisfitCollected TradesVol. 1: Animal Man (#1-9)Vol. 2: Origin of the Species (#10-17)Vol. 3: Deus Ex Machina (#18-26)Vol. 4: Born to Be Wild (#27-37)Vol. 5: The Meaning of Flesh (#38-50)Vol. 6: Flesh and Blood (#51-63)Vol. 7: Red Plague (#64-79)OmnibusesAnimal Man Omnibus (#1-26 and Secret Origins #39)

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Status: Not in Collection